Duke Energy wants to burn coal, gas at NC steam station for 15 years

JOHN DEEM Staff Writer

Duke Energy would be permitted to burn coal and gas until 2040 at the company’s Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County under a proposal submitted to state regulators Wednesday.

That would be four years later than the current timeline filed with the North Carolina Utilities Commission in 2023.

A revised schedule is significant because Belews Creek is one of the state’s largest power plants — and its biggest single source of climate-warming pollution, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Duke plans to neutralize the facility’s carbon footprint by replacing fossil fuel combustion there with emissions-free power from what would be the state’s first new nuclear reactor in nearly four decades.

The question now is, when?

Duke submitted its lates